A few days ago, I stumbled on this Kickstarter campaign of an ITX gaming PC:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aquatouch/aquatouch-built-in-transparent-touch-screen-itx-pc/description
CONTEXT
Now as to the context of backing this project is that as many of you may know that DDR5 RAM prices have been increasing sharply that it's almost not really feasible to get RAM new anymore. Coupled with the fact that as a result of RAM chip shortage also affecting GPU production. So, the question is...
Can gaming computers still be budget?
Will AquaTouch seems to think so.
Why ITX?
ITX Form factors have always been a popular choice and building one is not cheap and a labour of love as it takes quite abit of thinking of fiddling of components inside a small chassis. AquaTouch offers that construction as their sorta pre-build. Despite the smaller size, it's claimed that it will offer almost as much of an upgrade path as a standard PC.
CPU / Mobo Combo: Ryzen 9 9955HX3D
16 Cores, 32 Threads, 2.3-5.4GHz, 128MB L3 Cache inc 64MB 3D V-Cache
Don't get me wrong. It IS a laptop based CPU. But outside of the AI capable CPUs, the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is probably actually the best consumer grade CPU available and it is more than capable of duking it out with some of the other top tier desktop CPUs AMD has in the market. With it being 16 Cores and 32 threads, if you're into productivity and video streaming, this CPU is more than capable to do it. It resembles closely to the desktop based 9950X3D and 9900X3D. This is a rare example because there are only a small handful of laptops that comes with this CPU and you'll find it in high end heavy gaming laptops.
As to what motherboard this is paired with remains to be seen. However, you can get the case barebones' unit that comes with this CPU / Mobo combo instead of a full system. Its rear USB-C port does have USB 4.0 support which is not really super needed, but nice to have.
Touchscreen: 10.4" 1080p
What is unique is that a 1080p touchscreen is integrated to side of the case and can be connected via its HDMI cable that comes with the unit. Although technically that means you don't need an external screen to power up the computer, it does make diagnosing and troubleshooting without needing an external monitor easier. Most people will use this as a secondary monitor to monitor temperatures and hardware. But can also add some utility and productivity usage like monitoring streams and chats.
MSI Ventus RTX 5070 12GB Twin Fan or Gigabyte RTX 5070
To keep it light, small and relatively compact for the build, AquaTouch opted for a either a MSI RTX 5070 Twin Fan, from the Ventus line or a Gigabyte RTX 5070. I'll not keep this card, I'd sell it for an upgrade to an 5080, which the 850W SFX PSU will happily support, as long as the card is no larger than 320mm long. Width wise shouldn't be a problem as preview pics show that the GPU is mounted horizontally using a Riser cable which is also supplied. As to how it performs, with 12 GB of VRAM and 6144 CUDA cores, it should perform between the 4070 Super and 4070 Ti.
32GB RAM DDR5 5600MHz
The reason why now this would be an enticing to get the full setup, purely because of the RAM. 32GB DDR5 can go as high as 700 SGD. So it may not be a bad idea to go for this PC as it's already making up about the third of the cost of the PC if I do include shipping.
As to if it's using SODIM or Desktop RAM, is unknown to me, so I apologise I don't have the facts of that one yet.
1TB PNY CS2150 SSD
This SSD will double as your boot drive. This is nowhere near top of the line but it's more than good and fast enough to do what it needs. It'll run off the PCI-e Gen 5 x4 lanes but you can also add another drive at the back of the motherboard though it'll run at PCI-E Gen 4.
As of this writing, the backing costed 1293 SGD fully kitted out using the parts below.
Now let's see, if I were to get something like that with your own parts: This is what would have cost.
Ryzen 9 9955HX3D plus Mobo ~865
32GB RAM 2x16GB 700
MSI Ventus RTX 5070 Twin Fan or Gigabyte RTX 5070 : 1200
1TB PNY CS2150 130
Screen 10.4" 260
850W SFX PSU Say like a Thermalright PSU, 160
SFF ITX Case: Say 130
That's already about 3.2K thereabouts, in Singapore dollars. Which is NOT cheap for an ITX build.
To me that's a far cry. Sure you can get it as a barebones unit with the Case, cables, PSU and the touchscreen, or a barebones unit with the Mobo/CPU combo and PSU installed, Or the more popular option as a full system with the parts I mentioned.
You may want to back this if you've not done so yet. AquaTouch will only have room for 100 full systems.
As for timeline, the Kickstarter backing project ends on 10th January before manufacturing can be planned out and executed over the following months. Estimated delivery of the computers and cases is stated to be on April 2026 but we'll see as we go.
Following is a specs sticker of the entire system.
